Career

Zeck began his comics career in 1974, doing illustration assignments for the text stories in Charlton Comics' animated line of comics, which led to work on their horror titles.[1] During this period he lived briefly in the Derby, Connecticut, area where Charlton was headquartered.

Zeck illustrated the Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars limited series in 1984.[3] For this series, he designed a new black-and-white costume temporarily worn by Spider-Man.[4][5] The plot that developed as a result of Spider-Man's acquisition of the costume led to the creation of the Spider-Man villain known as Venom.[6]

Zeck illustrated the 1987 Spider-Man storyline "Kraven's Last Hunt",[9] written by his former Captain America collaborator J. M. DeMatteis, which is considered to be one of the quintessential stories in Spider-Man's history, as well as the definitive Kraven the Hunter storyline.[10][11][12] DeMatteis remarked, "Because Mike nailed the plot elements so perfectly in his pencils—every action, every emotion, was there, clear as a bell—I didn’t have to worry about belaboring those elements in the captions or dialogue. I was free to do those interior monologues that were so important to the story. If any other artist had drawn “Kraven’s Last Hunt” ... it wouldn't have been the same story."[13] In 2004, Zeck's cover of Web of Spider-Man #32, which depicts Spider-Man escaping the grave into which he has been interred by Kraven, was recreated as a 12-inch tall resin diorama statue by Dynamic Forces.[14]

^David, Peter; Greenberger, Robert (2010). The Spider-Man Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles Spun from Marvel's Web. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press. p. 86. ISBN0762437723. According to Jim Shooter...Mike Zeck did the actual design. Ron Frenz was the first penciler to actually render it in the comics.

^Greenberger, Robert; Manning, Matthew K. (2009). The Batman Vault: A Museum-in-a-Book with Rare Collectibles from the Batcave. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Running Press. p. 37. ISBN0762436638. Batman became the subject of several artist portfolios released by DC Comics in the 1980s, including a set of plates by Mike Zeck.

^Manning "1990s" in Dolan, p. 286: "Writer Mark Waid returned to the kingdom he helped envision with this series of specials designed as a sequel to the hit miniseries Kingdom Come. With two bookends entitled The Kingdom (illustrated by Ariel Olivetti and Mike Zeck)...these one-shots provided updates to the lives of the Kingdom Come characters."